Short Summary

After five unsuccessful pleas for a ceasefire the Lebanon has now gone nearly a week without any factional fighting.

Description

After five unsuccessful pleas for a ceasefire the Lebanon has now gone nearly a week without any factional fighting.

Moslem and Christian leaders have appealed to their followers to join hands in planning a better future for the Lebanon and state-run Beirut radio has expressed the hope that the country is heading for "total relaxation".

The fighting has killed more than, 1,350 people in the last six months and injured 3,000.

The mainly Christian quarter of Ain el Rummaneh where there was heavy fighting up to the start of October is being patrolled by Lebanese security forces. It has been quiet for several days.

The only incident to break the calm occurred at Beirut airport. Four Arab gunmen attempted to hijack an Egyptian airliner there. One of them, a Palestinian, was killed together with a Lebanese army corporal who tried to repel the attack.

A military investigating Magistrate said the gunmen planned to blow up the plane and its passengers if Cairo refused to renounce its recent disengagement agreement with Israel and restore normal relations with the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO).

PLO spokesman Mr. Zuheir Mohsen said the gunmen infiltrated the commando movement with the aim of discrediting it. He blamed Egyptian intelligence for "this strange crime".

Relations between Egypt and the PLO deteriorated last month following bitter Palestinian criticism of the Sinai agreement.